Black Roses
by IceKitty
Summary: Rouge finds a rather unusual gift on her doorstep one morning, and things become a little bit confusing. Shadouge


Eheh…. Well, thought I'd do a little Valentine's Day fic. You get one guess as to the pairing….

**Black Roses**

Rouge was, in her opinion, a woman of class. A woman who could easily get or reject any man. She could ignore even the most extravagant gifts because she already had them anyway. And yet, something so simple, something so mundane, captured her attention in a relentless grip and refused to let go. It sat there on her doorstep, simple and yet so very elegant.

The white bat snapped out of her surprise and picked up the bouquet of black roses from her doorstep. Upon closer inspection, she realized that not all of the roses were black; there was one, single, solitary white rose in the midst of the black ones. The roses were tied together with a thin, red ribbon, tied in a simple and yet seemingly flawless bow. The thorns had been carefully and meticulously removed. Spotting the card attached to the ribbon, Rouge opened it and read the words written in a rather artistic script.

'_To my one and only.'_

There was nothing written as to who sent the roses. "Hm…." Rouge turned back to the door and took the roses inside, finding them a nice vase and some water and putting them on the kitchen table. She sat down at the table and looked at the roses for a moment, the strong yet pleasant scent perceptible even from some distance away. '_I wonder who sent these?_' Rouge mused. '_Whoever he is, he's certainly got good taste. But what am I getting all worked up about? They're just a bunch of flowers. It's not like someone sent me a canary diamond or something._' She stood and went to leave, but paused in the doorway and looked back. '_Still…. Black roses aren't exactly common…._'

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Rouge took a step back to admire the effect of the roses in a vase on her bedside table. She'd been fidgeting with them for quite a while now, trying to find the arrangement they looked best in. '_Hm…. Wonder where Shadow got to? He's been gone a long time…. Probably off brooding again. He's been doing a lot of that lately…._' Her thoughts trailed off as the door clicked open. "Shadow?"

There was a moment's pause, and then, "It's me." Something about his voice seemed slightly tight, but Rouge ignored it and walked out into the living room, shutting the door behind her carefully.

"Where've you been?" Normally she wouldn't have pried, but she was curious.

"…Out." Without waiting to see if Rouge would respond, the black hedgehog went into the recently cleared out spare room that was now his bedroom, walking just a little faster than necessary.

Rouge let out an irritated little 'hmph' as she heard to door shut. "Wonder what's gotten into him."

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"Oh, that's so romaaaaaaantic!" Amy squealed over the phone, so loudly that Rouge had to cover her sensitive ears.

"Geez, could you be any louder?"

"Sorry, I just couldn't contain myself. But seriously, that's so terribly romantic. Who d'you think is your secret admirer?"

"No idea. Oh, wait…." Rouge was very glad she had decided to tell Amy about the little surprise over the phone, because a rather embarrassing blush was currently fighting its way onto the white bat's face. "Maybe it's…. No, no. Not in a million years."

"Ooh ooh ooh! Tell me!"

"No way. It's a stupid ide-"

"You _know_ I'll weasel it out of you anyway."

"Ugh…. Fine, fine. I think it might be-" A robotic voice cut her off.

"SHADOW, WHY ARE YOU LISTENING AT ROUGE'S DOOR?" There was a thump that made the door shake slightly followed by some muffled cursing.

"I'll call you back."

"Wha-"

Rouge set the phone back on the hook before Amy could protest. She walked over to the door, suspicion growing, and opened it to see a rather embarrassed Shadow rubbing his head with Omega standing behind him. If the robot were capable of facial expression, he would have had a confused look on his face. "I'd like to know that too, Shadow." Rouge's voice had a deadly tone to it. Shadow knew better than to say something that would make her angry, and so attempted to come up with a lie.

"Uh…." He glanced behind her and saw something that seemed to calm him. "I was…." Apparently whatever calmed him did nothing to help him come up with a decent lie. "I…. I have to go." Before either of his companions could react, he was out the door and dashing off to who-knows-where, the robot and the bat staring after him in stupefied silence.

"_What_ in the world was _that_?"

"I DO NOT KNOW. SENSORS INDICATE NO REASON FOR ESCAPE."

"Hm…. I'm going out."

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Aaaaaaaaaaaand here's where I end it. No more. Nada. Zip. No gushy stuff, no nothing.

….

….

Oh come on, don't tell me you believed that. ON WITH THE GUSH!

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'_I can't believe I did that…._' Shadow looked up at the city from his favorite place in the park. '_I can't believe I-'_

"Hey Shadow." The black hedgehog flinched and turned around so fast her felt his neck pop slightly. Rouge watched him with a slight smile, looking somewhat amused. "You know, I don't take kindly to eavesdropping." She said this in such a pleasant tone that Shadow didn't think it could possibly be true.

"I-"

"But I'll let you off just this once." To his surprise, the white bat winked at him. Taking the opportunity, Rouge brought up the little surprise she'd gotten that morning. "You know, I got some roses from a secret admirer today." she continued in that same pleasant tone, walking up next to Shadow and looking up at the city as well, seemingly unaware of how tense he had just become. "Aaaaand I think I know who sent them. It was…." She paused for the effect. "Knuckles."

The white bat smirked slightly as her sensitive ears picked up the slight sound of glove material rubbing together as the hands the gloves covered clenched.

"Knuckles?" Shadow echoed.

"Mm hm. In fact, I'm going to go thank him for them right now. Tell Omega I'll be back late." Without waiting for a response, Rouge took off into the air and flew off.

"Rouge, wait!" His call was apparently unheard, and he let out a heavy sigh. His hands unclenched, and in that moment he felt as though all the strength had been drained out of him. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" He smacked the palm of his hand against his forehead with each repetition. "Why didn't I just tell her how I felt! Stupid!" With one last smack, he turned to leave and almost ran right into Rouge. "!"

"Tell who what?" There was that pleasant tone again. Shadow was speechless for a few moments, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"But you-... But…. You just…." He gestured feebly towards the sky.

"I forgot something." the white bat lied smoothly.

"...Right. Well. There's something I wanted to say." He took a deep breath. He'd never been particularly good at anything involving emotions. "I…. Uh…."

Rouge frowned slightly. This was taking longer than she thought. "I'll just be on my way then, if you can't get your tongue untied." She turned to leave, but smirked slightly as she felt him grab her hand to stop her.

"No, wait! I'm the one who sent you those flowers, not that idiot Knuckles!" Shadow blurted out.

"I know."

"You… you what?"

"I know, silly."

"…Oh. Well then." Shadow found himself at a loss for words. "I'll just… be going now." He was stopped by a giggle.

"But I still have to thank you!" Shadow blinked.

"Thank m-…!" He was stopped by a tiny little kiss on the lips from Rouge. She pulled back and winked at him, and he could not help but smile back.

'_This was one heck of a Valentine's Day…._'

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XD We-ell, that's the REAL end of it. I wanted to do more with it, but I'm feeling a tad writer's block-ish and I wanted to get this out before Valentine's Day was dead and gone. So, maybe I'll do something better next year. XX Oh, and DON'T FORGET TO WRITE ME A BUNCH OF SHADOUGE STORIES TO READ! They really get me inspired. Happy Valentine's Day!


End file.
